Talk about lowering our living standards. In a recent article from the eco-green-liberals at CNN, our nation is seeing an increasing number of electrical blackouts. Not due to severe weather, but due to increased demand for electricity.

Predictably the solution CNN advocates is regulating (reducing) consumption through a ‘smart grid’ and not the increase of our electrical our generating capacity:

In a nutshell, a smart grid is an automated electricity system that improves the reliability, security and efficiency of electric power. It more easily connects with new energy sources, such as wind and solar, and is designed to charge electric vehicles and control home appliances via a so-called “smart” devices. (emphasis added)

Solar power (the photovoltaic principle) is a Victorian era discovery that 171 years later is not commercially viable. Windmills have been around for hundreds of years and they still can’t generate large scale electricity and has not replaced a single coal power plant anywhere in the world. However, faced with these facts, liberals continue the charade that green energy actually works.

In  TX, Austin Energy controls the thermostats of nearly 100K customer volunteer:

Austin Energy’s Smart Grid 2.0 is already in the works. We already manage 86,000 smart thermostats in homes and businesses, which at peak times can aggregate to about 90 MW of load. It will be interactive and “self-healing,” and will:

* Manage distributed generation—for example, solar photovoltaic and micro wind

* Build and manage energy storage

* Power and communicate with smart consumer appliances

* Charge plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles

Power rationing is the end result for all of us if liberals get their way. Regardless if we are willing to pay for the electricity or not, the regulators will decide when they will cut the electrical power to any smart appliance installed in our homes.

Early estimates for the cost of such a smart grid system is $1.5 trillion that will be diverted from adding value in our economy to regulating, reducing and creating an economic drag within our economy . Of course, advocates of the smart grid claim that the money spent on the smart grid will “create jobs” much like every other ridiculous green energy project that has been rolled out over the years.

One of the best things that can happen in our economy is the construction more coal and nuclear power plants. This will create actual jobs, eliminate blackouts, cut everyone’s electricity bills, and reduce businesses costs across the board. Furthermore, we have an abundance of coal that needs mining and shipping to power-plants across the country.